Ed Lorenzi on personal responsibility

Picture from Ed's Army Air Force flying days, 1944-45. The speech that follows is from his commencement address to his East Deer Creighton alma mater fifteen years later.

Commencement address 1960

Creighton High School

Ed Lorenzi, Class of 1942

Mr. Rometo, Members of the Faculty, Guests, Members of the Graduating Class, Mother and Dad, Parents and Friends:

I am sure you will allow me the personal salutation to my parents; it is but small tribute that I can pay them for all their trials they suffered in bringing me up. Almost nineteen years and some fifty pounds ago, I stood before the graduating class of East Deer High School, and made a speech. The words of that speech have long been forgotten, but the meaning, the reason, the accomplishment, have always remained in my memory. I do not intend tonight to try to inspire, to say words that will last forever, but rather I would like to speak of personal things I know and believe; things that I have learned and lived since leaving high school. What I will say, perhaps many of you have thought time and time again, and the mention of it will make you realize that many others think as you do.

As each new high school class graduates, you who have watched many programs such as this, note the physical change in the manner of doing things. But more important, you know there are things that cannot change. Chief among these is that quality in men and women that makes them useful citizens, leaders. workers, friends, and just plain people. This quality is first nurtured in the home, developed in our schools and churches, and transmitted by our graduates to use in their daily lives, and eventually to a new generation.

This quality is Personal Responsibility, your personal responsibility. The reason I say that this must not change is this. When the time comes that some action must be taken, be it personal, civic, educational, or a just plain difficult task must be accomplished, the alacrity and skill with which it is done will depend solely on the personal responsibility of the person that tackles the job. One of the chief reasons for the greatness of the country today is that in the times of our greatest need, there was always someone who was willing to put responsibility above personal gain. There was someone who forgot to ask "What’s in it for me?"

You, no doubt, have had the occasion to question the motives of those who work when no others will, who give their best, regardless of financial compensation. Look about you. You find them in the parents who toil carelessly to give their children all the things they did not have themselves, in the teachers who thrive on searching eager minds, doctors who are ever available, and public servants, a most maligned group, who can do nothing right according to many people, except run our government: which many of us take for granted.

We are all too prone to take our privileges for granted. even to demand our rights and privileges. What we fail to remember is that with each new privilege we are shouldered with a new and greater responsibility. You have all heard the old saying that rank has its privilege. As a. man grows in stature and status he is accorded many privileges, he is looked upon with respect, somebody answers his phone, runs his errands, and people seek him out. You have also heard that the man in charge is a lonely man. He accepts the responsibility for all the people who rely upon him, look up to him; and his time is no longer his. He is frequently called upon to use his talents for the good of all. Generally people who achieve positions of leadership do so because of an unusual personal responsibility.

But, just because a person is not a leader, as long as he expects privileges, he must accept responsibility. Just take a simple example of the privilege of Junior getting the family car. Without going into detail, I want you to think of the tremendous responsibility he assumes or should assume or should assume. Yet, all too frequently the family car is simply a matter of getting a privilege without the willingness to accept responsibility. Parents must assume the personal responsibility for the up-bringing of their children; they cannot pass this off to the churches, the schools, the social or civic agencies.

Our schools help to develop this sense of responsibility, but they are no substitute for responsible parents. To develop this responsibility you must be put on your own, on your honor. Have you ever wondered many times, when you have been given long and somewhat boring homework assignments, book reports or research to do, only to find that the next day, week, or month your teacher seems to have forgotten that the assignment was ever made, and you are never asked to report or turn in your work. How useless, what a waste; if you had known that you would never be called, you wouldn’t have done the work. Some later day in some way, the work you did or the method of learning stands you in good stead. You are the only one that knows you did the work, and you are the only one who benefited.

You take a job in industry, and this I know well. No business can be run efficiently by people simply carrying out the orders of their superiors. There must be a sense of responsibility from the lowest laborer to the highest foreman, men who take pride in doing a job well, men that can be dependent upon to use their own good judgment, their own sense of responsibility to do a job that they are proud of. Getting by is not enough, although for a short while, it can be done.

You have a deep responsibility to your friends. A true thoughtful friend will never put you in an embarrassing situation. You must never make demands on your friends that will be impossible to fulfill without loss of face, prestige or reputation to them.

How much responsibility must you assume? I say, All of it. Like the Good Samaritan, you are your brother’s keeper, and you cannot avert your attention from his problems with the simple justification that somebody ought to do something. You are that somebody and you must do something.

At this time of the year at commencements throughout the land, many words are being said. You hear that our world is changing, it is moving too fast. Maybe so, but let’s take the time to pause and reflect, kneel and pray, take pride in achievement, whether it be a high school graduation, creating something with your own hands, or just digging a good straight ditch. Let's take a little time to be friendly and kind. Write a note to a friend or relative, visit an ailing friend. And, above all, be courteous. As is the way with people who insist on their rights and privileges, and have no sense of responsibility, they fail to respect the rights of others.

You have the responsibility to being happiness into the world. There is a saying that you have no more right to expect more happiness than you produce, than you have the right to expect more wealth than you produce. For many years I have had the occasion to see the difference in the performance of men who have great personal responsibility and those who exist on the labors of others. But never had it been so forcefully brought to my attention as an address I heard on the attitudes and problems encountered by American boys, 18 - 20 years old prisoners of war in Korea. I cannot begin to outline to you the entire story, and I wish I could, because I believe that every American should hear it. But it brought home to me the importance of having something to believe in, a desire to fight and keep fighting until you win; of not quitting simply because there is no need of going on. I heard a story of how 5 enemy guards contained 5000 Americans whose minds had been so controlled that they no longer had the spirit to band together to resist (actively or passively), of how these same men allowed atrocities against their fellow prisoners, not by the enemy, but by other Americans - using the justification that they felt they had no right to interfere. Not one single organized attempt to escape was made, mainly because they would not accept leadership and discipline. More men died in prison camps than in any previous American war, not from executions and torture, but just because they gave up.

But, what has all this to do with us here tonight? It is this, - and never forget this: We must foster in our homes, in our family circles that sense of personal responsibility that will make Americans always want to stand up and say “I am an America!” We must instill in our offspring that sense of responsibility that makes them want to build a better world, no matter what the odds, that will make them sympathetic to the needs of those less fortunate, and make them humble in the sense they remember that their achievements are not the fruits of their labors along.

I have not brought you, or taken or left you on the threshold of a brand new world. Rather, I would like to leave you with the thought that what is yet to come will depend largely on you. If you are satisfied to let the world pass you by, so it will be. But, if your reach exceeds your grasp, you will live a full and happy life; not always content, not always secure; but filled with peaks of achievements and valleys of despair and interesting climbs and slides in between.

You may have been told many times to enjoy your high school life, for these are the best years. I can tell you from experience, these years are good, but go forward with a high and happy heart; the best is yet to come.

Lorenzi092.pdf

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In 2004, I used his address as the text for a talk I gave to 'emerging leaders' on the Loyola campus. A record of that speech can be found below.

Personal responsibility Oct 2004.docx

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